In parts I and II of this series, this commentator posited that the utterly gobsmacking sympathy for Hamas and the Palestinian cause following the utterly unspeakable October 7 rampage is at least in part attributable to two factors:

1.   The Palestinians’ success over the years – and it seems, even since the attack – in undertaking a systematic strategic communications campaign to build “brand equity.”

2.   Dramatic erosion of Israel’s “brand” driven by America’s increased secularization and the trashing of its image by the nation’s own elites as part of a global campaign financed by rogue billionaires.

So, putting aside the Palestinians’ brand strength, how does America’s strongest ally take its image back?

In essence, Israel’s brand has been “hijacked” – she’s being defined by Hamas, the international community, and in backhanded fashion, by the Biden administration, as:

• a nation of ruthless, revenge-focused killers; 
• taking out their anger at Hamas by annihilating thousands of innocent civilians, “mostly women and children” (a repeated data point from the completely discredited “Gaza health authorities) in a disproportionate response to Oct. 7; and 
• fomenting a “humanitarian crisis” for the rest of Gaza. 

Moreover, a Washington Times analysis just this week on the “fierce social media fight” between Israel and Hamas underscores just how the Israeli government is unwittingly reinforcing that image. The clue is found in three words and an acronym repeated throughout the story: “Israel Defense Forces” and its abbreviation, “IDF.”

As in “(c)ommanders of the Israel Defense Forces have flooded social media to explain their military actions in detail and the reasons they are necessary.” And “the IDF’s aggressive strategy to justify its actions in real-time and get ahead of any narratives that would paint Israel as cruel and dismissive of innocent civilian lives.”

Besides social media, turn on any TV news program, and who are you seeing in interviews and frontline videos presenting Israel’s side? Tough-looking male IDF officers!

The Israelis, painted as heartless “baby-killers,” are putting the alleged heartless “baby-killers” front and center to “explain their military actions?”  Puh-leeze!

Meanwhile, the IDF is wasting its time and breath showing evidence of what Hamas stands for: true baby-killing, serial rape, use of life-saving hospitals and humanitarian supplies to deal with death, and the cowardice of murdering their own women and children by using them as human shields.

As PR practitioners would describe it, taking a page from stock traders, Hamas’ brutality is already “priced in,” especially after Oct. 7. Nothing the IDF or anyone else can say or display will add or subtract one iota from this baked-in understanding that, outside of Israel, no longer moves the needle when it comes to moral equivalencing.

Nor is a negative and defensive posture calling out anti-Semitism, understandable as it is, the answer. For Israel’s critics, “Jew hatred” is a feature, not a bug.

Rather, Israel must tell the world who it is and what it stands for in positive terms that resonate with the generation most sold-out to the Palestine cause, and increasingly running the show across American business, politics, and culture: Gen Z (especially females).

The narrative she must convey, recognizing that (McLuhan was partly right) the medium and messenger are elements of the message: Israel is a People of Peace, Progress, and just Plain Cool. 

Detailing Israel’s repeated, extraordinary gestures toward and offers of peace, including the withdrawal from Gaza that made it vulnerable in the first place. Israel has since reached historic peace accords with responsible Arab neighbors and worked behind the scenes with others, and deeply longs for a similarly trustworthy partner to oversee Gaza and ensure secure, tranquil, and mutually prosperous co-existence with Palestinians.

Progress: Yo, Gen Zers! Enjoying that handheld supercomputer known as a cell phone you grew up staring at, built around powerful microprocessors? Its effort-saving facial recognition? Those TikTok videos trashing Israel, delivered by ever-more powerful servers? Connecting via What’s App and other instant messaging programs? Getting around via Waze? Thank Israeli innovators who developed those technologies and more, thanks to the world’s second-highest concentration of high-tech companies after Silicon Valley. 

And while many Americans revere the eternal capital of the world, Jerusalem, the nation’s modern face is one of the coolest cities anywhere, Tel Aviv. Its hip Florentin neighborhood is the Greenwich Village of the Middle East, a center of arts and culture and a beacon of tolerance. Plus don’t forget those nearby hippie-like kibbutz communes, the liberal epicenter of Israel’s peace movement – and inexplicable targets of the monstrous Hamas attacks.

Now about moving on from those IDF spokesfolk: the good news is that attractive messengers – literally – are already on the job. Actress Noa Tishby, previously a Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, has been a tireless, articulate, and sympathetic campaigner for Israel for more than a decade, and has spoken out all the more boldly and articulately in the wake of October 7. (Check out her x.com feed.) 

And next to her at a recent event sharing their responses to the atrocities: none other than Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, back on Instagram calling out feminists this week for failing to stand behind Hamas sexual assault victims, after a quiet period resulting from mindless Hollywood backlash to her social media posts putting human faces on the hostages.

Both have had their differences with the Netanyahus – Tishby was dismissed from her envoy post for opposing the prime minister’s judicial reform package – but now all Israelis must stand together. Appoint the two literal brand ambassadors for Israel, backed with a full-scale campaign (financed perhaps by wealthy Jewish patriots) including paid advertisements across TV, print, and social media. Even a Super Bowl spot for these Wonder Women wouldn’t be out of the question.

The message, however, needs to be, as they say in the biz, “titrated” a bit from defensive to positive. To reiterate:

Peace. Progress. Cool.

Rinse. Repeat. And repeat again for as long as it takes.

Bob Maistros is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.